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I would call it a slicer. I guess that could be eating or multi purpose?

I will tell you that I was never overly impressed with the taste of it. To me, it's just okay. Others rave about it. It was always one of the earliest tomatoes to ripen in my patch and it pumped out tomatoes all summer. I hope you will give it a try next year and report back on your experience with it.

I looked at the references you sighted but still believe the correct name for this variety is “Winsall”. I can see what SESE and others have on their website/catalog but must disagree with their statement. Most of the statements seem to be ‘cut & pastes” of one another.

Below is a portion of the full text version of the 1925 Peterson catalog. It clearly states that the first year No. “400” was given a ‘real’ name it was “Winsall”.

Follow the first link below, and then do a ‘Find on this page’ search for ‘Winsall’. It will take you to the text I show below.

If you follow the second link below it will take you to the actual 1925 catalog. Move to pages 14 & 15 to see the actual catalog ad which clearly states the correct name in 1925, the first year it is named by the contest winner, was “Winsall”

FOR THIS WONDERFUL NEW TOMATO OFFERED LAST YEAR UNDER THE NUMBER "400 HAS NOW BEEN AWARDED. SEE FULL PARTICULARS ON OPPOSITE PAGE

PETER HENDERSON & CO., 35 and 37 Cortlandt St., NEW YORI

From PETER HENDERSON & CO., NEW YOR K

915 HENDERSON'S

Newly Developed Prize Tomato

15

Winsall

Shown in Colors on opposite page

It Wins Approval from 40,000 People— It Wins Prizes Wherever Shown—It Wins by its Qualities of Sweetness, Solidity and Seedlessness — It Wins because of its Wonderful Size and Gorgeous Color.

When we described Hendersoo's Winsall Tomato offered as No "400" last year "as bigger and better than Ponderosa" we were aware that many of our friends might be somewhat incredulous ; but we now know that they must be convinced of the truth of that statement, because of the thousands of letters of praise for Henderson's Winsall received from them during and since the growing season of last year — a few of which we publish on this page.

Some of the letters describe Henderson's Winsall so well as almost to render further description by us superfluous. We will however add to the encomiimis of our friends a few words telling of it according to oxu' own experience in our soil and climate.

Henderson's Winsall is about five days later than Ponderosa In maturing its first fruits, but its second fruits seem to ripen more rapidly than do the fruits of Ponderosa. The coloring is indeed perfection; the bright red extending close up to the stem end. Henderson's Winsall is undoubtedly the most meaty tomato ever produced; the entire fruit being edible, tender, and delicious, and remarkable for an almost entire absence of seeds. This latter characteristic is so pronounced that many of our friends proposed to call it "Giant Seedless."

As for smoothness and formation Henderson's Winsall is a great Improvement upon Ponderosa, and as time goes on we propose to still further improve it by careful supervision.

This novice Kentucky guy thinks that the name was meant to signify "Wins All" meaning that the tomato variety won everything concerning tomatoes that year! The word evolved into "Winsall" due to normal slang/shortcuts, and poor grammatical practices, etc!

This novice Kentucky guy thinks that the name was meant to signify "Wins All" meaning that the tomato variety won everything concerning tomatoes that year! The word evolved into "Winsall" due to normal slang/shortcuts, and poor grammatical practices, etc!

but Jerry posted above from the Henderson catalog and it was called Winsall.

I'm going to e-mail someone I know to see if that person knows when and where the name was changed by so many to Wins All.

Hey gang - and thanks Carolyn for removing me from transcribing days of audio recordings taken over the week into my Excel spreadsheet (gets tedious!)...

So - Henderson did call it Winsall - that is the "official" name.

Someone in NC, in 1994, sent me seeds for a tomato which he clearly spelled as "Wins All" in the letter and on the seed packet - to keep true to the source, I believe I may have listed it in the SSE as that (with the history) - and it may well be "Winsall" as released by Henderson.

I've grown them both (Winsall from Gary Staley sent to me in 1988 which he spelled as "Winsall" and "Wins All" as sent to me by the North Carolina fellow - and they were essentially both tasty regular leaf, large fruited pink beefsteak types - which is what one would expect, being essentially a selection of Henderson's original Ponderosa.

Uhoh. I picked up some Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad seeds from Mad River Seeds, and they're apparently striped, not pink? My plants haven't even started blooming yet, but this is the photo the seller provided. Do I not have the true thing, then?